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2012 Belgian Grand Prix
|poletime = 1:47.573 |fastestlap = 1:52.822 |fastestlapdriver = Bruno Senna |fastestlapnation = BRA |fastestlapteam = |fastestlapnumber = 43 |winner = Jenson Button |winnernation = GBR |winnerteam = |second = Sebastian Vettel |secondnation = GER |secondteam = |third = Kimi Räikkönen |thirdnation = FIN |thirdteam = }} The 2012 Belgian Grand Prix (officially the 2012 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix) was the twelfth race of the 2012 Formula One Season and the 68th Belgian Grand Prix, the 57th time as the round of the Formula One World Championship. The race was held on September 2nd at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, the 45th F1 race held there. The race was won by Jenson Button who led the race from start to finish, followed by Sebastian Vettel in second and Kimi Räikkönen in third. The result leaves Fernando Alonso, who retired on lap 1, leading the World Championship by 24 points from driver Sebastian Vettel. Red Bull continue to lead the Constructors' Championship by an increased margin of 53 points from . After the race, the stewards awarded a one-race suspension, active at the , to driver Romain Grosjean for causing a collision at the first corner which led to the retirement of himself, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Sergio Pérez and Pastor Maldonado. Background Following the extended summer break, the drivers will approach the Belgian Grand Prix with driver Fernando Alonso leading the World Drivers' Championship by 40 points from Mark Webber of . Red Bull lead the Constructors' Championship. The event will be a first Belgian Grand Prix for F1 rookies, Jean-Éric Vergne and Charles Pic, both of whom have experience of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit from other racing series. There are no major changes to the circuit from the 2011 event, and the DRS zone is again expected to be from the exit of Eau Rouge/Radillon, along the Kemmel Straight to the braking zone for Les Combes, with the detection point before the entry to Eau Rouge. Chilean driver, Eliseo Salazar will make his debut as the drivers representative on the Stewards board in Belgium. Salazar raced in Formula One from 1981 to 1983 for the March, Ensign, ATS and RAM teams. However he was more noted as a Sports Car and IndyCar driver in his later career. Salazar was also one of the former F1 drivers competing in the GP Masters from 2005-2006. Practice Overview FP1 In the first practice session Valtteri Bottas replaced Bruno Senna in the second Williams, Jules Bianchi replaced Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India and Dani Clos was piloting the HRT instead of Narain Karthikeyan. With a heavy downpour of rain on the circuit there was limited track time for the drivers. The downpour meant that there was a rather unusual final result for the session time sheets. Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber lead the timesheets with Pastor Maldonado in the Williams second followed by the Toro Rosso's of Ricciardo and Vergne. Mark Webber was top of the championship runners in 5th with Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel in ninth. The McLaren's of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were 15th and 16th respectively. Both Ferrari and Lotus opted to do only very limited running, completing only a few basic installation laps. The Ferrari of Felipe Massa was the only car who did not set a lap time, a suspected engine failure prevented him from completing his first lap. Of those that did brave the conditions, Kobayashi, Maldonado, Ricciardo, Webber and Button had spins down at Les Combes. FP2 The afternoon practice session suffered from a similar rain downpour as the morning session. Free Practice 2 however saw even less activity in its session in the first. The session saw only 18 of the 24 drivers venture out on track and only 10 of these drivers completed timed laps in the very dying minutes of the session. On top of the 10 drivers who set timed laps was a surprising Charles Pic, for the first time setting the fastest time in a Formula One practice session for himself and the team. Of the championship contenders only Fernando Alonso set a timed lap putting his Ferrari third on the timesheets. Alonso's teammate Felipe Massa was the only driver who participated in both Friday Practice Sessions who did not set a lap time in either session. The Lotus drivers of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean only went out very briefly in the first practice session, however in the second session they did not leave the garage at all. Other notable names who did not make it out on track was the Red Bull of Mark Webber, the of Vitaly Petrov and both the drivers of Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan. FP3 The Saturday free practice session was in stark contrast to the Friday practice sessions. The Sun was out and the track was extremely busy as the drivers and teams attempted to gather as much data on the track that was not able to be gathered due to the rain on the previous day. Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes had a suspected gearbox failure fifteen minutes into the session which caused him to stop out on track. With barely any running in any of the practice sessions his retirement from the session put him on the backfoot for qualifying and the race. At the conclusion of the session it was championship leader Fernando Alonso leading the way in his Ferrari. His nearest championship rivals in the Red Bull's saw Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel finish seventh and ninth respectively. Kimi Raikkonen demonstrated the Lotus's pace finishing the session just behind Alonso in second. The Sauber team produced impressive lap times with Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi finishing a strong third and fourth. Lewis Hamilton however did not produce any strong lap times finishing the session in twelfth whereas his teammate Jenson Button finished the session fifth. Practice Times Qualifying Q1 The sun was shining once again with no threat of the torrential rain that had affected the Friday Practice sessions. The session saw the Williams of Pastor Maldonado as the fastest man on track just pipping the McLaren of Jenson Button to the top of the time sheets. This was in contrast to their teammates with Lewis Hamilton struggling in fifteenth and Bruno Senna in seventeenth. Nico Hulkenberg also showed promise putting his Force India third just ahead of the Ferrari of Championship leader Fernando Alonso. Hulkenberg however was involved in an incident where one of his hot laps were allegedly blocked by the fastest driver Pastor Maldonado, the incident would be investigated by the stewards after the conclusion of the qualifying sessions. The constructors championship leaders, Red Bull appeared to be struggling with Sebastian Vettel finishing tenth and Mark Webber finishing fourteenth. Nico Rosberg was the big loser in the session though, he failed to put together a competitive lap time and finished the session eighteenth and within the drop out zone. It was always going to be a struggle for the German, he had done near to no dry weather driving on the circuit after the circuit wash out on Friday and his gearbox failing in the opening minutes of the first dry practice session on Saturday. Q2 Jenson Button continued to demonstrate his qualifying pace putting in the fastest lap time of the session. Fastest man in the first session Pastor Maldonado struggled and only just managed to put his car in tenth place and into the final session of qualifying. The same could not be said of his teammate however, Senna struggled in his Williams which saw him have a large spin at Pouhon. He finished the session in seventeenth and last place. Both Sauber's appeared to be competitive with Sergio Perez finishing the session second and Kamui Kobayashi finishing fifth. Nico Hulkenberg who had appeared very strong in the first session struggled in the second qualifying session and only put his car into twelfth position. He was beaten by teammate Paul di Resta who had made into into Q3 after ironically struggling in the first session. However the biggest name to not make it into the final qualifying session was reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel. Vettel had been struggling with his car all weekend and finished a disappointing eleventh putting his Red Bull just ahead of Hulkenberg and Michael Schumacher who would be starting his 300th Grand Prix from a disappointing thirteenth. Q3 McLaren, Lotus and an impressive Sauber were the only teams to get both drivers into the final qualifying session. Jenson Button continued to set the benchmark time and dominated the final qualifying session to take his first pole for McLaren and his first since the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix with Brawn. Kamui Kobayashi scored his best ever qualifying position finishing second and putting himself on the front row next to Button. His teammate Sergio Perez also finished an impressive fifth. Championship leader Fernando Alonso did not demonstrate any strong pace throughout all of qualifying, yet crucially with the exception of the Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen who starts fourth he manages to qualify ahead of all his nearest championship contenders. Behind both Button and Kobayashi starts Pastor Maldonado who had generally been quick throughout the weekend putting himself and Williams in a prime position to fight for the lead of the race on Sunday. Post-Qualifying After the second practice session on Friday it was confirmed that Mark Webber would suffer a five place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. This meant that he would start the race in twelfth position just behind teammate Sebastian Vettel who would start tenth. With both their drivers in for a likely chance of winning the drivers title and the Red Bull team leading the constructors title it had put the team and the drivers at a serious disadvantage after qualifying as they were the lowest qualifying team and drivers of the likely championship contenders. Nico Rosberg would also receive a five place grid drop. His gearbox failure in the Saturday practice meant that the team was forced to replace the gearbox before it had finished its required lifespan. Rosberg would now start twenty third and on the last row of the grid starting ahead of only the of Narain Karthikeyan. Starting so far back on the grid and only completing a very limited number of laps on the circuit would make it difficult for Rosberg to score a strong result for the team. Pastor Maldonado's strong third place on the grid was under threat after he had allegedly blocked a flying lap from Nico Hulkenberg in the first qualifying session. The stewards eventually concluded that Maldonado was guily of blocking Hulkenberg and therefore handing him a three place grid penalty meaning that Maldonado will start sixth on the grid. Therefore promoting four time Belgian GP winner Kimi Raikkonen to third with Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso starting fourth and fifth respectively. Qualifying Results † Maldonado was handed a three place grid penalty for blocking during qualifying ‡ Webber was handed a five place grid penalty for a change of gearbox §Rosberg was handed a five place grid penalty for a change of gearbox Race Report to follow Classification Milestones * Michael Schumacher's 300th race (298th start). * Vitaly Petrov's 50th race (49th start). * 's 50th race. * First fastest Practice time for * First fastest Practice time for Charles Pic * Jenson Button takes his first Pole Position for McLaren-Mercedes * First Front Row Start: Kamui Kobayashi * Bruno Senna: first Fastest Lap * First Lights-to-flag win in F1 since 2011 Indian Grand Prix Notes es:Gran_Premio_de_Bélgica_de_2012 Category:Belgian Grand Prix Category:2012 Grands Prix